The initial Black Friday reports are in from Coremetrics. Online shopping saw a huge boost with spending increasing 15.9% from a year ago. The average order was also up 12.1% from $170.19 to $190.80.
Health and beauty saw some very encouraging numbers on Friday, with a rise of 73.1% of new consumers completing their first purchase on their sites and 53.4% jump in conversion rates (number of visits where consumers completed an order). Jewelry retailers saw a 17.6% increase in online sales indicating a boom day for luxury goods.
The way consumers were shopping online this past Friday indicates a shift in how purchase decisions are being made. The benchmark report revealed that consumers are viewing 18% fewer products on sites than they did last year. This suggests that online shoppers have done their research and know what they want to buy and where to get it. Department store sites seem to be the research resource of choice, as the report shows a 17.7% increase in the amount of time being spent on these sites from the same period a year ago.
Mobile shopping had a breakthrough day this Black Friday. 5.6% of online consumers logged on to a retailer site using a mobile device. That is a 26.7% increase from a year ago!
The report shows a modest increase in social shopping. More and more consumers are turning to their favourite social networks to learn about deals and inventory levels. Just under 1% of visitors to retailer sites came from social networks. This is to be expected as people are not usually in a shopping frame of mind while on social sites, but even this modest increase indicates a possible shift in that attitude is starting to take shape. Facebook is leading this charge.
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